


a light in the chaos

by MavenMorozova



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Age of Anarchy, Anarchy, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Attempted Sexual Assault, Gen, One Shot, Superpowers, Young Renegades
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:40:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24402202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MavenMorozova/pseuds/MavenMorozova
Summary: It's the middle of what will become known as the infamous Age of Anarchy. Priyha Mitchell is alone and in a tight spot...it certainly helps to be a prodigy.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Original Female Character & The Renegade Council
Kudos: 7





	a light in the chaos

**Author's Note:**

  * For [demon-swing](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=demon-swing).



> fic posted a year ago on tumblr for @demon-swing.

Priyha Mitchell was one step away from her apartment building’s door when she heard the gunshots, far too close for comfort. Instinct drove her to spring immediately behind an upturned garbage dumpster and stop breathing. Well, not exactly. Priyha still could feel the air coming in and out of her mouth (as her nose was too stuffy to do the job) but only very quietly, perhaps at the volume of a pianississimo note that she would play on her viola.

Priyha crouched there, hands wrapped around her knees in a fetal position, and heard shouts around the corner. Then they came closer. Boots sounded across the broken concrete and a  _ ping! _ bounced off someone’s dented, scratched Mercedes-Benz, which someone had probably already broken a window into to scrounge for anything valuable. Or at least, Priyha assumed it was a Mercedes, or something like that. That’s what all her neighbors had, anyway.

Priyha and her mother had moved into the well-to-do Sharonworth neighborhood only last year, when her mother had remarried to a rich, high-ranking member of Evesca Enterprises, one of the biggest multi-monopoly companies in America. Her stepmother’s name was Alissa, and was one of the kindest people Priyha knew. Not that she still didn’t miss her late father, of course, and the small rundown house where she used to live near Cosmopolis Park. It had been a bit of a jolt to Priyha when her mother had remarried to a woman instead of a man, but if they loved each other, which they did, she didn’t really care.

But Alissa was on the other side of the world in Thailand, having left on a business trip before the world had gone to shit, and not being able to book a flight back to the States. And her mother, Kashvii, was scavenging for food somewhere in Gatlon City. No, she was not shopping. There were no more grocery stores and no more farmer’s markets. This job would require theft.

So Priyha was alone, having returned from her own rendezvous with an old friend, Honey, to exchange information… and a little more. And she was scared, shivering behind a stinky oversized trash bin. And the boots only stomped closer to her hiding place, a low male voice accompanying it.

“Search the garbage,” the man ordered, snapping his fingers. Priyha heard another person hurry over to the dumpster she hid behind and opened it. She ducked as the lid came crashing down on the other side, hardly daring to move.

“Well?” asked the impatient man.

The sound of broken glass came from above her. “Nothing here. Just some empty beer bottles,” answered a second voice, also male. His voice sounded familiar, but Priyha didn’t dare look to see who it was. He stepped away from the trash bin, coughing.

“You better not be sick,” grunted the first man, coming over to look inside himself. Priyha heard him rummaging, but he didn’t seem to find anything, either. “I didn’t come all this way to Gatlon just to contract the flu, or whatever’s going around in this godforsaken city.” His voice carried away from Priyha as he walked away, and she felt the knot in her stomach uncurl a little.

And then--oh, no. With the mention of sickness and coughing, Priyha could feel one coming up her throat. She desperately tried to hold it down, but as the men continued in conversation, it wasn’t enough. A small, strained sound escaped her. She covered her mouth in a vain attempt to smother the cough, but it was too late. The two men leaned over her, and the taller, paler one gave an ugly leer and a small chuckle. “Jackpot.”

“Priyha?” the second man squeaked, his eyebrows almost disappearing into his hairline. This was why she had registered his voice. It was Victor, her old classmate from middle school. They had shared a math class in eighth grade. Five years later, he was barely recognizable, especially with the Roach gang garb he sported.

Rough hands grabbed Priyha around her waist and dragged her to a standing position. “How old are you, sweetheart?” inquired the tall man, eyes searing into hers with a feral disposition. She was nineteen and had been attending her freshman year of college when the anarchy broke out, but she’d never tell him that. She was silent.

“I said,  _ how old are you _ ?”

Still, her lips were sealed. From fear or defiance, she didn’t know.

“She’s an adult,” muttered Victor, “if that’s what you’re wondering.” Priyha flared her nostrils at him, and he looked away in shame.

“Wonderful,” the man hissed, grabbing her butt instantly. He whispered in her ear as her breath came in sharp shallows, “I don’t make it my business to fuck children.”

That was all she heard before she swung around her foot, hitting his crotch. The man howled in pain, clutching Victor’s shoulder. Priyha didn’t stick around for long. She turned on her heel and hurtled down the alley, chest screaming in pain as the cold winter air entered her lungs.

“You little bitch!” the man shouted after her. “Get her!” he screamed at Victor, who hesitated. “What are you waiting for? Go!”

Victor scrambled after her, but Priyha was faster. She felt her feet fly across the pavement, her shoes blurs. Faster she ran, even faster. It was almost as if the ground had disappeared beneath her; she couldn’t feel her steps. Before she knew it, she was at the Evesca Enterprises headquarters, all the way on the other side of the town. How had she gotten there so fast? The burning in her chest was gone, and she found that she wasn’t even breathing that hard. And, best of all, Victor and the man were nowhere to be found.

Priyha slipped inside the building through a window missing its pane and found herself inside the reception hall. It was silent inside. No one worked here anymore. No one worked  _ anywhere _ anymore. Priyha’s shoes crunched on the broken glass as she made her way over to the receptionist’s desk, empty, of course. Her fingers slid over the bare countertop, absent of any telephone, post-it notes, or papers. All supplies were taken, for whatever purposes. Nothing was left.

She left the hall into the stairwell and crawled behind the staircase. Kneeling in the dust, Priyha began to cry. The sounds were magnified in the empty chamber, echoing onto the floors above. She cried harder, but her sobs only mocked her in return. Time passed. Priyha inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. Today was not one that would be repeated. She had a secret. She had superspeed. Priyha--Priyha was one of the oddities now. So she was a rebel, then? No, not that. She wasn’t interested in saving the world or changing the system. She just wanted to live. So what was she? What were these people?

She recalled a word used by the rebel leader. What was his name? Ah, yes--Ace Anarchy. He called them  _ prodigies _ . How fitting.

Priyha stood, dusting herself off, and climbed the stairs. With her newfound power, she was up to the top floor in a second, pausing only briefly before pushing open the emergency exit door to the roof. No alarm sounded. Of course it didn’t.

She stood on the roof’s edge, her toes hanging over above the street. The thrill of being so close to death whirled through her as she stared into the stratus cloud-filled sky, a dark grey looming over the city. In the distance, she saw a helicopter lurch and fall from the air. No. It was  _ pulled _ from its flight. By the king of telekinesis. Ace Anarchy.

Distantly, Priyha saw a woman with deep brown skin even darker than hers fly through the air, a Japanese woman in a piggyback behind her. The latter sent a wave of water crashing below the helicopter, buoying it and landing it safely on a roof somewhere. The flying woman, satisfied with the outcome, u-turned, heading toward Priyha.

They landed on Evesca Enterprises’ roof beside her. Up close, Priyha could see that they wore homemade costumes out of a comic book. “I’m Lady Indomitable,” said the flying woman with a flourish. “And I’m Tsunami,” added the water-controller. “We’re  _ Renegades _ , at your service.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked this! starting a full-length fic about the Anarchists and renegades during the AoA soon!


End file.
